


Protected

by JRaylin441



Series: Briareus [5]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Gen, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Social Workers, not-quite-parental!Roy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-03
Updated: 2016-06-03
Packaged: 2018-07-11 23:07:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7074346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JRaylin441/pseuds/JRaylin441
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which a social worker decides that someone should put a stop to children in the military, and promptly decides to take matters into her own hands.</p>
<p>
  <i>This boy needed the support of at least one strong adult figure, and a commanding officer was no replacement for a parent.</i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>As a social worker, it was Darby’s duty to correct this situation, permission or not.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Protected

**Author's Note:**

> And we're back with another oneshot that I am proud of! Of all my stories, I think this is the most accurate I've managed to get Mustang's team.
> 
> Let me know what you think! Or don't! Thanks for reading either way!

Darby had been planning this for a while, she realized, as she crept past the main entrance to the military base. Maybe not consciously, but it normally took a whole lot more convincing than this to get her to do something so generally frowned upon. The only explanation, then, was that her subconscious had known that it would come to this, and had planned accordingly.

They had turned her away at the gate when she had tried to get in the legal way, even when she whipped out the big guns to explain to them that _one of their soldiers was in danger of serious, long-lasting trauma_.

They had actually laughed in her face.

So yeah, Darby had taken matters into her own hands, but wasn’t it justified? There were times when necessity outweighed the law, and this was one example.

The People’s Alchemist. It was enough to make her sick to her stomach. This boy, an _orphan_ , if the papers were to be believed, should have been safely placed with a family and people to look after his emotional development. A boy needed a system of support and communication. Instead, he was being paraded around the country in a circus act that was clearly the ploy of a government trying to regain the backing of its country. Sickening how it was working. Sickening how Darby seemed to be the only one willing to step up and put a stop to it.

But she _would_ stop it. She would blow the lid on this whole story and make sure that the government would not be able to repeat this process with anyone else. She could still remember the moment she found out what was happening. The morning paper along with a warm cup of coffee to start her day. The words arching across the cover of the page _THE PEOPLE’S ALCHEMIST RETURNS MINE TO TOWN_. And a grainy, black-and-white image of a boy, half-snarling at the camera.

The picture was the only hint she had needed as to his current state of emotional need, but she read the article anyway, and realized the extent of the problem with growing nausea. A pawn in the political games of this country. This boy needed the support of at least one strong adult figure, and a commanding officer was no replacement for a parent.

As a social worker, it was Darby’s duty to correct this situation, permission or not.

She had tried conventional methods at first, writing the military headquarters to request that Edward Elric be released into state custody, but there had been a return letter from _the fuhrer himself_ telling her, in the most bureaucratic of terms, exactly where she could shove her suggestion. Of course, that could only be because the fuhrer wasn’t fully aware of what was going on. Surely, if she could present strong evidence for the need of Edward’s removal from this environment, everything would straighten itself out.

So here she was, a branch caught in her hair, a leaf or two down her shirt, and a smattering of ant bites on her left ankle, but through the fence. Which meant the hard part was mostly over. As long as she walked with purpose, there would be very few security checks unless she tried to visit one of the higher-ups. Of course, this was only if she could get the branch out of her hair, as it was currently a very obvious marker of her not belonging.

Ten minutes later, Darby slipped into the building, hair frizzed up on one side, but otherwise unremarkable, in a way that she had dressed to be. It just took a few stops in the hallway, asking some lower-ranking soldiers if they could point her in the direction of Colonel Mustang’s office, and she was well on her way. Sure, she had known it was going to be easy, but this was bordering on the ridiculous. While trained military men might know how to deal with her if she had been some sort of terrorist, this was clearly no place where a child could logically feel safe.

The door was wide open, and from the prepubescent voice drifting out in the hallway, it was clear that the ‘Fullmetal Alchemist’ was within. Another mark against the government. Didn’t they know that by making this boy such a big deal, they would be putting him in danger of attempts on his life? Darby started a list in her head to give to her superior. This was worse than anything she had expected. With evidence like this, it wouldn’t take much effort to pull the boy out of the military and into foster care.

Upon actually entering the doorway, Darby had to take a moment to readjust her point of view. She had been expecting a quiet, diligent workspace with a boy sitting somewhere in the background, keeping mostly quiet. Instead, there was a general hubbub of activity in the center of the room. From what she could see, there was a tall blond man hunched over a boy made all of gold, holding him in a headlock while he ruffled the stands of hair pinned back in a braid. The boy was snarling and lashing out with his elbow in an attempt to get free. A huge suit of armor stood behind the activity, shuffling from foot to foot and communicating, without expression, his discomfort with the situation.

Before they could notice her, a clearing of a throat came from the doorway further in. There was the Flame Alchemist, easily identifiable after Ishval. He should have been disapproving of such activity under his watch, but there was a smug twist to his lips that let Darby know that he was in no mood to stop this behavior, and that this was more of a regular occurrence.

“Having trouble, Fullmetal?” He was mocking the boy. Another demerit.

The boy writhed in his trap and snapped his teeth like a rabid wolf. “Go screw yourself, Colonel Bastard.” The foul mouth of a boy feeling inferior and needing to assert his dominance over the situation. Why was no one acting to stop this? In fact, a glance around the room showed that everyone was in a various state of amusement at the scene playing out before them. This was emotional abuse!

“Hmm. Not on government time, I’m afraid.” There was a full blown smirk on the man’s face, and the blond restraining the boy let a chuckle slip. A diligent woman previously unnoticed let a sigh be heard from her place at her desk.

Fullmetal stopped struggling and kicked at table leg near him, leaving a small divot. “Damn pervert. Don’t you have papers to be signing?”

“Perhaps I finished early.”

“Don’t pull that. I’ll be your age by the time you finish _today’s_ paperwork.” Which a vengeful grin, Edward grabbed at the arm that had slackened in distraction, and flipped the blond man over his shoulder. In a split second, the tables had turned, so that now the man was on the ground, with one heavy black boot resting on his chest. So the boy felt the need to learn how to defend himself when he should be in a situation of security.

“Mess my hair up again, Havoc, and you’ll wake up without any. I know where you sleep.” And the boot was lifted with a demure smile. The blond man, Havoc apparently, rolled to his feet and flashed a grin at the boy.

“No promises.”

Was Edward Elric constantly in such a state of attack? He felt the need to make threats to ensure his safety, only have the warnings thrown back in his face?

“I think I’ve seen quite enough.” Darby could not maintain her silence, and the words burst from her mouth to shatter the easygoing atmosphere of the room. There was a flurry of movement as everyone in the office adjusted to the newest presence.

“Can we help you?” The Flame Alchemist, whose face had been open and laughing a moment ago, was now all business.

“Darby. Darby Klein. I work for the Child Protection Department, and I was simply here to observe the Fullmetal Alchemist.”

“And what,” the voice was a barren artic plane, “did you find?”

“This situation is entirely unsuitable for a child. Clearly our department will have to take immediate action to see if a better set-up can be found for-.”

“Wait. Child Protection Department? Like a social worker?” The child in question spoke up now, and in the quiet that had befallen the room, his voice rang out.

“That is the general idea, yes.”

“Like the kind of person who would try to separate my brother and me?” There was something feral awakening in the boy’s eyes, and as he took a step forward Darby had to prevent herself from automatically stepping back. She was a seasoned professional. This was hardly the worst reaction she had encountered…

“Though that is not our intention, there is a distinct possibility, and that is something that you must be prepared to…deal…”

There was a fire in Edward’s eyes as he took another step forward. The anger Darby saw in his gaze was not that of a boy, but a seasoned old man, who had seen the worst of the world and had a right to pass judgment on what was right and wrong. Nothing like what she had seen a minute before and had mistaken for the extent of a child’s rage. In a moment, the social worker considered the fact that she may have not gone about this in the most reasonable way.

“Fullmetal.” The quiet word fell into the room like a flat stone, ringing in an unnatural and commanding way. The boy jerked to a stop as his commanding officer stepped past him, regaining ground that had been recently traveled, and gazed at Darby with a thinly-veiled glare.

“I expect you will find that it will be a bit harder to remove these boys from their situation than you think. The fuhrer himself has appointed this boy to the level of state alchemist, and would not have done so if he did not think that the military would be able to provide a satisfactory living situation. Now, if you have seen enough, as you said earlier, then I suppose there is no more reason for you to be here. You will find the door to be directly behind you.”

Darby moved like a puppet on strings as she took another step back and felt the door, warm and solid, behind her. The command had turned her body off-kilter, and in the unfettered shock, her brain reevaluated the room, and the positions that the military men had assumed when confronted with an unexpected presence.

Edward Elric had shoved the suit of armor into a corner, so that there were no windows, doors, or open spaces behind him, and was now standing directly between the armor and the social worker he viewed as a threat. The men under Colonel Mustang had all shifted to cover their commanding officer in some way, and were now watching Darby with bright eyes that tracked her every movement. The sighing woman from earlier had her hand resting at the top of a holster on her hip.

Edward Elric was protecting the armor. The soldiers were protecting the colonel. And Roy Mustang was standing just ahead of the Fullmetal Alchemist, shifted slightly so that he could grab the boy in a second, or stop something that was coming toward him.

All this was noted in less than a second as Darby whirled around and slammed the door to the office, intent on getting as far away as possible.

It wasn’t until later that night, as Darby sat before the fire and started to compose a list of reasons to remove Edward Elric from the military, that she saw the situation for what it had been. The Flame Alchemist had been fully intent on protecting his underling, even when it should have been the other way around, and his men were perfectly content to do what needed to be done, so that their colonel could behave in such a way.

No, a commanding officer was no replacement for a parent, but the relationship between Edward Elric and Colonel Mustang was hardly that of a commanding officer and his subordinate.

Perhaps there was no need for the list after all. Before she could overthink it, Darby tossed the neat stack of paper into the fire, and watched as the flames burned away her reasons that Edward was not safe.

It seemed oddly fitting.


End file.
